Debunking Shits About Evolution - Episode 7 (Homo sapiens futuris - The Next Destination)

Human activity; which is a resultant effect of our evolution, has been seen to have direct impact on our environment - this activity in this era is called Anthropocene. But contrary to the popular belief that Anthropocene was initiated with the human species, we have seen reasons to believe that they pre-dated the present day humans with enough evidence to substantiate it. The activities that started disrupting the balance our ecosystem started with our ancestral grandpas, but with the emergence of technology, these activities have been seen to increase. So, as it were, human evolution and activities are also related to technological advancements. No wonder it has been said repeatedly that technology could be the next phase in human evolution.

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INTRODUCTION

The appearance of the modern humans can roughly be dated to about 250,000years ago, but considering the age of the earth (which is over 4billion years old), or the time when the earliest hominid specie appeared (the Sahelanthropus about 7million years ago _ref), then you would be right to infer that the modern human is very much at its infancy. But awesomely enough, the emergence of the modern humans was seen to have sped up the overall trend of evolution; of which many factors can be remotely queried for this - like the force of technology (I mentioned in my last episode). In view of all these, would another species arise from the present day humans? I once made a humourous remark to someone, I said; In a couple of centuries from now, the species at that time would look back and say "damn! did we actually evolve from humans?" Just like we say "did we actually evolve from Apes?". Join me as we take another myth-buster episode. Length Alert: I just can't help it, but this post is somewhat lengthy too, but I guarantee a broader knowledge for you if you can survive the length.

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HOMO SAPIENS FUTURIS

People normally use Homo sapiens to represent humans. Okay, they are actually correct to some extent, but considering that fact that we are not the only subspecies of the Homo sapiens, it is worthwhile to put up a differentiation. Oh yes! Homo sapiens actually means "thinking man". And looking at this holistically, the Neanderthals also had the ability of thought - no wonder they are also a subspecies of the Homo sapiens called; Homo sapiens neanderthalensis, and also there is the Homo sapiens idaltu et al. So we will refer to the extant modern humans as "Homo sapiens sapiens" to distinguish between the other subspecies.

When we talk about evolution from humans, people's minds are normally drawn to the incorporation of mutant abilities, just like it's depicted in some of these sci-fi movies - maybe people with additional limbs, ability to regrow limbs like a damn Axolotl, superman kind of strength and all that, but this is not necessarily the case. We should take note of the fact that evolution can occur at a smaller level; and this is the microevolution, of which the collection of these microevolutions would make a definitive alteration in the life of an organism. This can be explained from our environment constantly changing, so our bodies would also need to change in apposition with the environment, so as to prevent us from going into extinction or obsoletion. Truth is; you may not be able to state categorically what we would evolve into, but from observing of some factors (like environmental factors, advances in technology), you can infer what will change in us as we keep evolving. Note; people have used "Homo sapiens futuris" and the "Homo futurae" to mean the same thing. Just like Homo sapiens neanderthalensis and Homo neanderthals are the same. Some also refer to these future species as "Homo deus", or "Homo sapiens 2.0". Let's consider some few alterations to expect in our bodies.

OUR FEET: FAREWELL TO PINKY TOE

Prehensile feet of our ancestors. From Flickr, by Edward Burnett Licence:Public Domain

Remember, in my last episode, I made mention that our earliest ancestors lived majorly as arboreal (tree-dwelling) species. And for an added advantage, their feet were prehensile (just like your hand), and the toes where long - which is useful for them to grab trees branches. But when they started to shift to walking on the ground, the feet started to evolve differently - into more rigid form, and less prehensile, until we got to this present time.

If you take a look at your feet now, you would agree with me that the toes are so short compared to how the fingers of your hands are - but in the earlier days of evolution, there is a close similarity in both. But bipedalism came with its own pecks. Can I shock you for a while? The pinky toe is more or less a vestigial toe, and you can do without it, as revealed by a particular research by assistant professor Anish Kadakia _[ref]. Well, because of some evolutionary lifestyle of our ancestors that made them arboreal, they needed the pinky toes for grasp. But in this era, humans do not hop from tree branches to another, so we would not care much about losing our pinky toes in the future. Oh yes! This is another point of call for the evolution of our feet. Okay let's look at this carefully: To be able to walk effectively, we need the actions of our hind foot, plus the mid foot, and the fore foot (which are the metatarsals - the toes), but with the constant wearing of shoes with rigid sole; for example; there wouldn't be room for the adequate usage of the pinky toe. No wonder our pinky toe is slowly declining and shrinking in size - in affirmation to Lamarck’s theory of "use and disuse"... Remember, a body part not constantly in use tends to be less consolidated upon. Future humans (Homo sapiens futuris) could completely lose the pinky toe.

From Wikimedia Commons. By Aurélie & Sylvain Mulard Licence:CC BY-SA 3.0

Note: This should not be confused with oligodactyly, which is a medical disorder that is characterized by someone being born with fewer toes, like is shown in the image on the left. This does not necessarily have to do with evolution, but some syndrome; like the Poland syndrome could be remotely queried for this. So in view of this, it is worthy to note that evolution is not a medical condition, neither is it an illness - but it is a way species adapt to their immediate environment. Asides the feet, what else are we expecting to change in us as we evolve into the Homo sapiens futuris?

OUR TEETH: FAREWELL TO WISDOM TEETH

Taking a look at some of the fossils of our ancestors, like the Zinjanthropus found in East Africa, you would agree with me that they had protruding jaw bone, with some characteristic large and strong teeth - no wonder the specie was dubbed "the nut-cracker"; obviously, they needed the strong teeth to crack tough nuts. Also, even some of our earliest ancestors were carnivores, so they would need some really strong dentition to crush between bones. This can explain why their dentitions were strong.

But going by the trend, it has been observed that the dentitions in present species are fewer, and of course, the buccal structure is smaller. Imagine how wide and big the mouth of the present day gorilla is, in comparison to ours. Our mouth is getting less supportive of having the complete wisdom teeth. Even now, some people are beginning to lose the third molar. Why do we even need all these teeth when our foods are getting processed and we don't munch hard nuts like the Zinjanthropus? And by inference, fewer number of teeth and small sizes of teeth would result to smaller jaw-size and smaller buccal structure. So we should expect the Homo sapiens futuris to evolve with smaller jaws. Hope we wouldn't turn to look like some fucking aliens? Or wait! Maybe aliens are our future selves that are on a time-travelling mission.. lol, I'm kidding there. But the future humans having very small jaw size would look awkward, or maybe we're actually the ones looking awkward.

In the predicted future, technology would have become really advanced and this will place in the hands of humans the power to alter the human genetic material or tweak them at will. That means, the evolution of humans would no longer be at the mercies of natural selection, but the fate of human would be at the choice of humans... thanks to genetic engineering. But one area that has been left in the grey zone is; would this Homo sapiens futuris be just a single specie? Rephrasing it; would the extant modern human evolve into a single specie or multiple species, just like our ancestors evolved into both us and the present day ape? Obviously, going by the trend of evolution, it is almost hard to say that a specie evolved directly into just a single species, so why would this be any different?

If this is the case, then we could co-exist with more than one subspecies of Homo sapiens futuris. And the battle for supremacy could be triggered; but in the end, the best adapted species would survive - just like the Homo sapiens sapiens survived in lieu of the Homo sapiens neanderthalensis.

FINAL WORDS

Humans have not stopped to evolve, neither have we reached at the apex of the evolutionary trend, but what are we set to evolve into? This has been a very herculean task to pinpoint, but we have been pointed to the right direction to see what would change in us as we evolve from Homo sapiens sapiens to a future specie called "Homo sapiens futuris". Y'all should not expect it to arrive automatically at the press of a button; it would be a gradual process, and the trend has already begun.

Thanks for reading